Dream Pet Link

Dream Pet Link swaps the traditional suits for a menagerie. The tiles carry lions, penguins, sheep and a handful of other animals, and the job is to connect identical ones to each other until the board is empty. Agame built it, and the art choice is not decoration only — the animals are distinguishable at a glance in a way that bamboo counts are not, which makes the game a speed test rather than a reading test.

There are nine levels, and each one runs on limited time. That structure is what gives the game its arc: the early boards are cleared comfortably, and by the later ones the same time allowance has to cover a denser grid. Making best use of the limited time means matching what you can see immediately rather than combing the board for a particular animal. For a board of the same kind, see the Butterfly Kyodai grid.

Because the tiles sit in a single layer, nothing is hidden from you and every pair on the board is visible from the start. The constraint is reach, not visibility, so the pairs to prioritise are the ones whose removal opens space in the crowded middle. For the rule in plain words, see the page on onet boards.

The stage is 800 by 600 and gains a lot from full screen, mostly because spotting a matching animal quickly is easier when the faces are large — at small size the penguins and the sheep flatten into similar dark shapes. Desktop and mobile are both supported, and on a tablet the animal tiles are big enough to tap reliably.

Clear all nine levels within their time limits and the game is finished. Most failed runs come from hesitating on the last two boards rather than from missing any single pair. The Fruits board belongs to the same easy-going list.

1. Look over the board of animal tiles and pick out two showing the same creature.
2. Connect them to each other to make the pair disappear from the layout.
3. Prioritise pairs that free up the congested centre of the grid.
4. Keep matching against the clock — the time allowance is what limits you, not the number of tiles.
5. Clear all nine levels in turn to finish the game.

• Match on sight — Dream Pet Link rewards taking the pair you have already spotted over searching for a specific animal.
• Open the middle — outer tiles are easy, but the centre is where the time gets lost on later levels.
• Learn the animal set — lions, penguins and sheep read differently at speed, and knowing which is which saves a second per match.
• Watch the clock, not the tile count — the limit is the same whether ten tiles remain or forty.
• Play in full screen — larger animal faces are much easier to pair quickly than small ones.